The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to diagnostic imaging systems, and more particularly to mounting cables within a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, particularly cables providing electrical connections within the MRI system.
MRI systems can include a superconducting magnet that generates a temporally constant (i.e., uniform and static) primary or main magnetic field. MRI data acquisition is accomplished by exciting magnetic moments within the primary magnetic field using magnetic gradient coils receiving signals through cables extending within the gantry of the MRI system. For example, in order to image a region of interest, the magnetic gradient coils are sequentially pulsed to create pulsed magnetic gradient fields in a bore of an MRI scanner to selectively excite a volume corresponding to the region of interest in order to acquire MR images of the region of interest. The resultant image that is generated shows the structure and function of the region of interest.
In conventional MRI systems, the mounting arrangement for electrical connections for the gradient coils must adequately support the cables communicating the signals to the gradient coils. In particular, current pulses applied (e.g., as part of a pulse sequence) to the gradient coils to generate time-varying magnetic fields can induce eddy currents that cause motion or vibration of the gradient coils. If adequate support is not provided and excess motion results, such as from electro-magnetic coupling and vibration during coil pulsing, image artifacts can be caused in resultant images (e.g., white pixels in the images). However, if the mouthing arrangement is too rigid, stress will be placed on the gradient coil terminal due to the electro-magnetic coupling and vibration, which can result in breaking the cable or terminal.
Known methods and mounting arrangements, such as brackets and plates that attempt to solve these problems are difficult to install, heavy, expensive and may require additional components, such as strain relief, which can cause other issues (e.g., loosening of fasteners). These known methods and mounting arrangements may likewise still suffer from some of the problems associated with providing not enough support or too much support.